Jamison had already triangulated the area where they’d discovered the previous victims. She thought it important to concentrate on that remote section. If caught unprepared by Mira’s timely call to the local constabulary, the killer would be inclined to dump the girls quickly. At least that would be the smart thing to do, as disturbing as Jamison found the possibility. Altogether, the area equaled about sixty-five square miles, certainly not insurmountable considering their jaguar abilities.
“Kessler, tell us what’s going on. Sheriff Macke won’t say anything.”
Jamison wasn’t surprised that Marie made the demand. The others looked to her for guidance and as much as Jamison didn’t care for the woman, there had to be a chain of command. Marie Tristan represented the Council here and everyone knew it. “You all know we’re looking for Lindsay Drake and Mira Pye. You are our best chance of finding these kids unharmed. Macke and her people mean well, but they would literally stumble on top of a clue and never know it. If there’s something to be found, we are their best hope.”
“They shouldn’t even be here,” Marie snapped. “Did you see how they’ve been tromping all over the place? You can’t even get a decent scent.”
“Yeah,” a faceless voice agreed.
Jamison heard murmurings among the group and quickly silenced them. “Which is why some of us are staying here to help out. The rest of us are moving to search the park. Elder Tristan, if you could take a group in from River Road just north of Stark Falls and move south I would appreciate it.”
She deliberately couched her order in the form of a request, but it still took a moment for Marie to nod in agreement. Jamison assigned other groups to move in from the east and west to converge in the center of Carry Falls Reservoir, the Massawepie Area and Grass River Waterfalls. She assigned three cats to each group for a total of five search teams.
“Elder Kessler,” Tim North began. “I noticed you have a specific area in mind. Is there something else you’re not saying?”
Jamison couldn’t divulge information concerning an ongoing murder investigation or how she knew this particular region was most critical. Instead, she focused on the seriousness of the situation. “The sheriff’s office received a nine-one-one call from Mira. The dispatcher heard Lindsay say someone was after them.”
Low, ominous growls rumbled around her and Jamison quickly checked to see that no humans stood nearby. She felt the same way, but needed to get her Panthera back under control before someone decided to lash out. Before she could, Marie spoke up again.
“They were kidnapped?”
The hardness in her gaze prevented Jamison from prevaricating. “Yes.”
For once, the obdurate elder didn’t continue to posture. “Let’s get started. The more we wait, the longer this animal has our children.”
“I think it best if we park near the entrances and search the park in pelt,” Jamison suggested.
“I concur. We can cover more ground faster and will be less likely to miss anything. Let’s all meet toward the center of the open field near Bog Road.”
“No,” Jamison interrupted, unwilling to allow Marie to usurp her authority. Jamison was still a jungle cat and the park was her territory. “We’ll meet behind the camp area near Roman Falls. It’s closer to the center of the park and off a main roadway where a human might see us.”
“Makes sense,” Tim offered, clearly trying to appease the two dominant jaguars. Marie’s nostrils flared and Jamison thought she would dispute the decision. “Fine, but let’s move. I feel like time is racing by and we do not have that luxury.”
Jamison agreed. She nodded and turned away, trusting the Panthera to comply with their instructions. Vehicles started and pulled out in a semi-orderly fashion. Jamison opened the door of her truck but had yet to slide inside when a beat up station wagon drove up beside her. She caught sight of Brenda’s frizzy hair, looking even more untidy than usual.
Walking up to the driver’s window, Jamison waited until Brenda lowered the glass. A slightly acrid scent wafted out of the interior. Wrinkling her nose, Jamison leaned down slightly. “I’m glad you could make it. Head down to the train station and help Detective Hex and her team out. They’re concentrating on the tracks and the old platform.”
It would have been nice to have Brenda’s help searching the park since she definitely knew the region, but couldn’t have her in the national park area with a prowl of jaguars searching the woods.
“What about Mira’s car?”
“Yeah, they have the Buick, too. They’re looking for anything right around the immediate area that might indicate the girls headed into the woods.”
Brenda nodded. “What if they didn’t?”
Jamison thought it pretty sad that Brenda was hardened to the point of assuming this wasn’t just a case of a couple of lost kids. “Then we need to find evidence that would point to a suspect.”
“I’ll park and head right up there.”
“Good, and watch your step. You never know when you might mess up something important.”
Jamison moved away and climbed into her vehicle. She reached for the cell phone to call Lee while starting the engine. She had healed and deserved to be involved in the search for her apprentice. Lee picked up on the first ring and Jamison smiled, knowing her partner had been with Dinah when the sheriff called. Jamison was just surprised Dinah had talked Lee into getting out of the helicopter.
“Have you found them?”
“No, not yet. How would you like to help out with the search?”
“Where should I meet you?”
“Some of the Panthera are heading into the park to search. Can you meet me at the Deerlick Falls campsite?”
“Of course,” Lee said. “I’ll get there as fast as I can.”
Jamison told Lee which park road to take that led straight to the campsite and quickly hung up. She fastened the seatbelt and pulled out onto the dirt lane, her mind already occupied. She didn’t intend to join the main hunting teams. While it was important to search those areas, she had a feeling the Panthera would come up empty. Before long, she drove into the park. Jamison bounced along on the dirt lane, but refused to slow down. She stopped in the high grass on the shoulder about a quarter of a mile from the campground.
Headlights appeared in the distance and Lee arrived a few moments later in her dark blue rental car. The lights shut off and she had already stripped off her shirt when she slammed the door. “Where are the others?” Lee asked, hurrying over to Jamison’s side.
Jamison surprised Lee by embracing her. She pulled Lee against her and briefly closed her eyes, needing the feel of her mate. Lee’s strong form provided a sense of comfort Jamison couldn’t find anywhere else. The anger she’d experienced all night, generated by the fact that someone had the gall to kidnap two of Harmon’s children, slowly dissipated. Long fingers threaded through her hair, further cooling her ire and helping Jamison center her focus.
“They’re searching other parts of the park.”
Lee squeezed her and stepped back a pace. “Then what are we doing here?”
Jamison dropped her arms. “Playing a hunch.” She gestured toward the tree line. “About a hundred yards through the trees is the campground used by our first murder victim. It’s been closed to the public since we found the body.”
“You’re not expecting whoever grabbed Lindsay and Mira to bring them here are you?”
“No.” Jamison shook her head. “I think our murder victims were ambushed in the woods, possibly along one of the hiking trails. They were killed in the forest, placed inside some kind of four-wheel drive vehicle and transported over near Cherry Falls. Detective Hex had Seaver and Chase check out this road and the nearby hiking trails, but they didn’t find anything.”
Lee frowned in frustration. “Jamison, I appreciate that you still have a murderer to catch, but shouldn’t we concentrate on finding the girls.”
Jamison almost snapped that finding Lindsay and Mira was exactly what sh
e had in mind. She caught herself at the last minute and realized they were right back where they’d been before Lee’s car wreck. Jamison let go of her impatience with difficulty. Sometimes being a dominant Panthera made her lash out without thought.
“I am,” she said as calmly as she could. “Look, Lee, all of this is connected. I don’t know how, but I know it is. The person who has the girls is the same one who killed Lauren Reid and Pauline Nielsen and the best way to find them is to figure this out.”
Lee slipped her t-shirt back over her head and ambled over to the tree line in question where she turned back to face Jamison. “All right, we need to find something, some kind of trail that Chase and Seaver couldn’t. You said before that both women died by bleeding out from severed arteries. That would make quite a mess. No one has reported anything like that on the hiking trails?”
“No, but it’s the off-season. We have few campers this time of year and even fewer bird watchers or hikers. The detectives only searched the immediate area, but really, the killings could have happened anywhere.”
“Not anywhere,” Lee disagreed. “I think you can rule out any areas where a vehicle can’t travel. I don’t care how strong someone is, you can’t carry dead weight for long over rugged terrain.”
“That’s true and the hiking trails aren’t wide enough for that, but they all merge with a main road. I’d like to change into pelt and scour this area for ourselves. If we can find a blood trail, we might be able to trace it back to the source. We’ll probably only end up with tire tracks...”
“But we could follow those tracks.”
“A human couldn’t do it, but we haven’t had any rain since the last death.”
“And like you said before, there aren’t a lot of tourists this time of year so there should be few tire tracks other than the park vehicles.”
“Right,” Jamison agreed, “and those tracks would be easily ruled out.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go get my girl.”
Chapter Ten
“DID YOU FIND them?”
The sound of her mom’s worried voice caught Casey North’s attention because it was so unusual. Sitting on her knees in the living room, Casey had been watching Scooby Doo chasing the Boo Brothers, but she forgot about them when she heard her parents talking. Even her dad sounded scared. Daddy wasn’t scared of anything. Casey saw him bury his face in her mother’s shoulder. He spoke in a low voice, but she heard him anyway.
“No, nothing. It’s been hours now.”
Casey smelled his sweat; it carried a tinge of fear. Something bad had happened and they were trying to talk about it without letting her hear. Of course that only made her more curious. She cocked her head to the side, focusing her directional hearing.
“We found Mira’s car on Old Mill Road. It looks like they had a flat, but there’s no sign of the girls. Some people searched the woods around the car and the train station while the rest of us went into the park. It’s like they just vanished.”
“Surely they haven’t given up looking?”
“No and I don’t think they will until they drop over from exhaustion or find something. I just wanted to come home and check on you two.”
They continued whispering until her father realized Casey was eavesdropping. Abruptly he released his wife and turned toward his daughter with a strained smile. “Hey, Snow White, what are you still doing up? It’s late.”
Daddy always called her Snow White because she had such dark hair and pale skin. She giggled and then answered. “Mom said I could watch Scooby Doo until you got home.”
“Is that right? Well then, it looks like it’s time for you to turn in.” Her father squatted down beside her and lifted Casey sideways into his arms.
“Five more minutes?” she pleaded. “It’s almost over.”
“You’ve seen this one a hundred times.”
“I know, but it’s so funny when Shaggy gets flour on his head. Please?” Casey batted her eyelashes at her dad and allowed her lower lip to tremble.
“Okay, okay,” Tim chuckled. “Don’t go into the act.”
He sat her back on the floor and headed for the kitchen. The house phone rang and he adjusted his course toward the study.
“I’m going to make your father something to eat. When that’s over go upstairs and brush your teeth.”
“Okay, Momma.” Casey said absently, looking at the television but no longer seeing the cartoon.
She’d never heard her dad so upset and even Mom sounded frightened. Two kids were lost in the woods. Casey thought that was silly. The old hilly road was only a few blocks away from their house. How could someone get lost when they were practically in town? Casey watched Scooby and his pals solve mysteries all the time and finding the girls didn’t sound all that hard. Even Shaggy helped and he was even sillier than Scooby. If Shaggy could help Fred, Daphne and Velma find clues, how hard could it be?
Casey jumped up and headed for the coat closet beside the front door. She shoved her feet into her battered sneakers, disregarding the hole in the toe on her left shoe. Casey could smell the cold air seeping under the threshold so she pulled on her warmest coat and tugged on her fuzzy pink mittens. She had great night vision, everyone said so, but it was nighttime and she was still a little afraid of the dark. Hesitating only an instant, Casey grabbed her father’s Maglite off the closet floor, turned and left the house. She was careful to close the door tightly behind her.
The heavy-duty flashlight wobbled unsteadily from side to side. Her fingers weren’t long enough to wrap all the way around the handle and her mittens made her grasp slippery so she held it with both hands. Staring at the illuminated patch on the ground did little to relieve the movement-induced nausea, but Casey refused to give in. Daddy would be so proud of her when she came home with the girls. Just the thought of success made her grin as she pushed her unruly black curls back from her forehead with one hand and then quickly returned it to the handle.
Her hair was getting too long and her mom wanted her to get it cut when they went shopping that afternoon but Casey escaped the ordeal of the Beauty Shop by faking that she had a tummy ache.
Grownups all thought she was a little kid, but Casey intended to show them. They’d all see how smart she was when she found Lindsay and Mi...Mi...Lindsay’s friend.
Their house was four blocks from downtown and the Adirondack forest started not far from the old lumberyard. All she had to do was look over near the woods there and she’d find the girls. They’d all be back before bedtime. Easy peasy. So why couldn’t adults think the same way? Harmon couldn’t be that big.
Before she reached the edge of town Casey started to shiver. It was cold tonight and already she wished she’d gone upstairs like her mother told her. She could be in her bed right now, with Daddy reading a bedtime story. Casey could almost feel the warmth of the covers. On top of being cold, she suddenly had the feeling that eyes were everywhere, watching her every move. She imagined one of those creepy old paintings from a Scooby Doo cartoon. The bad guy was always inside the painting and their eyes followed when you moved.
Swallowing hard, Casey thought of their lost girls. If she went home now, what would happen to them? Casey would want someone to come find her if she was lost. With that in mind, she took a deep breath and kept walking. Maybe she could shift into her cat form and then she’d know for sure if anyone followed. Immediately, she rejected that idea. To transform, she’d have to take her clothes off. Momma didn’t like it when she changed without getting naked because it ruined her things and Casey wasn’t about to strip down outside in this weather. Not only that, she wouldn’t be able to hold the flashlight. If she lost the light, she couldn’t see if any monsters decided to attack.
Just the thought of monsters almost did the trick. Casey stopped walking and turned around. Standing on the far side of Harmon’s square, she looked back toward her house. She couldn’t see it in the dark, but she did see an approaching car. Casey’s heart pounded
in her thin chest and she ducked behind a mailbox. The vehicle passed slowly and Casey peered around the edge of the metal box to see a police car. Deputy Gomez looked all around the deserted streets but never looked her way. Silly human, Casey thought.
As soon as he disappeared around the corner, Casey scooted out from behind the mailbox. Seeing the deputy still searching solidified her resolve. She wouldn’t give up. Casey started off in the direction of the old hilly road. The hilliest road into Harmon that she knew of was where State Highway 86 came into town. The rest of the town was pretty flat.
Casey stopped at the edge of the square and carefully checked for traffic before crossing the highway. There wasn’t much on this side of town except for the old police station that was now a dog grooming shop, a couple of antique stores, and a fenced off area that held the city workers’ heavy equipment. The dirt here stank like old oil-soaked soil. Weeds and red dirt thrived. Casey thought it was kind of scary because no one was around this time of night. A chilly wind gusted, lifting her dark hair and she shivered. The heavy flashlight wavered.
Passing the closed shops, Casey passed out of the glow from streetlights. With no clouds overhead, the moon and stars seemed particularly bright. She jumped when the sound of a cargo train shrieked in the night. A few moments later she heard the chug of the wheels and then the enormous monolith raced into view. She watched the train for a while thinking how cool it sounded. Sometimes when she couldn’t sleep, she’d lie in bed and hear the train from her bedroom window. The train never stopped in Harmon anymore, but she really liked the sound it made.
Under Devil's Snare (Under Series Book 2) Page 11
